Nicholas Gombert

Franco-Flemish dominance of music in Europe continued well into the 16th century. One of the major figures contributing to this in the generation after Josquin was Nicholas Gombert . . . chief among others were Jacob Arcadedt, Arnold von Bruck, Phillipe Verdelot, and Adrien Willaert . . . all of them traveled from N. France and Flanders to find leading positions in the South, except Arnold von Bruck who became maestro at the Austrian Court.

In 1526 we find Nicholas Gombert around age 30 a member of the Imperial Chapel of Charles V . . . not only the most powerful monarch in Europe but perhaps the most knowledgeable about music, since he grew up in the Court of Burgundy with musicians like Pierre de la Rue in the Burgundian Chapel. Gombert presided over the music for the 1526 wedding of Charles V to Isabella of Portugal in Seville (Charles was King of Spain as well as Emperor). Gombert continued to write motets for State occasions . . . 1527 the birth of son, Philip (II) . . . 1531 coronation of Ferdinand I as King of the Romans . . . 1533 signing the treaty between Pope and Emperor.

After 1540 Gombert’s name is missing from the Imperial Chapel lists. According to the physician, Jerome Cardin, Gombert was convicted of molesting one of the choristers in his care and was “sent to the galleys”. After several years, wrote Cardin, Gombert managed to get some remarkable settings of the ‘Magnificat’ to the notice of Charles V who was so affected by their beauty that he pardoned the composer. There is no further information on Gombert’s life other than Cardin’s writing in 1561 that he had died.

The ‘Opera Omnia’ of surviving works by Nicholas Gombert include 10 settings of the Ordinary, 140 motets, 70 chansons . . . published by American Institute of Musicology, edited by Joseph Schmidt-Görg.